UK Debate

It was rubbish- a disservice to us the audience. And it's not about the format, it's about the presenters. Jeremy Paxman and Kay Burley are everything that is iffy with modern Britain - a bully and an average.

I made a decision to change myself. I was no longer happy, or confident with my appearance. When I looked in the mirror, all I could see was a big nose, bad skin and an overweight figure. As time went on I became obsessed with the mirror, checking it up to 10 hours a day.

In my view, the EU would be a better place, if the plethora of its policies were not defined as an outcome of the everlasting conflicts between a humanitarian but unrealistic France and a productive but austere Germany, but if they were rather set by a pragmatist Britain. This outcome might as well be the best choice possible for Europe's -and Britain's- future.

Debate may have had a bad year in 2014, but if we collectively use technology a little bit better, who knows? Maybe we can resist the appeal of the swirling vortex. Maybe 2015 won't be such a bad year after all.

It's simple: "The only way of living in a free society is to feel that you have the right to say and do stuff." Said Salman Rushdie. Go figure. Let truth and falsehood grapple. How do we know what is right if we don't know wrong and the case that is made for wrong. Ideas may be distasteful and deeply disagreeable, but we cannot airbrush and disappear that and those people that we disagree with.

As a church we can't teach how bad sin is, to love your neighbour as yourself, to live in Jesus' example; then attach 10 asterisks at the bottom of the page with our 'terms and conditions'. I'm sick of feeling part of a faith that, in part, will charitably give with one hand and damage with the other. Its literal hypocrisy, and its nothing like the religion that I believe in...

It is not an issue of women who go out wearing negligées, it is an issue of misogyny and men who have no idea how to treat women... If you want to dress up as a sexy nurse, or a sexy doughnut, or a sexy caterpillar, or just a regular unsexy caterpillar, I don't see a problem. Go forth and enjoy your night.

It's really easy to write a tweet, a status update or a blog about something that annoys you. The blogs I've written so far have mostly been reaction pieces to news and, reading back, I've found they're not necessarily upbeat.

Week is in full swing by now and before artgoers gulp down Prosecco and canapes, an other substances, as if there was no tomorrow, it might be a good idea to stop and rethink that things need to change and an honest debate is long due. Innocent victims deserve it.

Are we asking for radical change to the constitution of the UK? No - we're asking for a truer democracy, one where everyone gets and feels involved in the creation of their community. By returning the power to change things to those that need it most, this could well be seen as a great change so the question becomes 'Are we asking for radical change?' Yes - we're asking for a truer democracy.

I have never cared for breakfast TV. It's usually due to the fact that I associate it with being woken up before I am ready to meet the day. As I work in the evenings I seldom need to get up in time for a typical 6am show, nor do I see the need to record it for when I do rise.

With the UK general election only a year away, who is winning the political debate? I differ from many people, who say that all politicians are corrupt and are only in it for themselves. In my experience, most politicians are in fact honest and believe in what they're doing.

Just when you thought that street food pop-ups, build-your-own-tasting-menus and fish cooked with nothing but lime and love was enough, that crazy culinary world has thrown another trend into the pot. The brainy dinner.

Like you I have people very close to me who have been affected by breast cancer, some have lost people to it and they were very sad about the way CoppaFeel and Page3 presented the message. What is more disappointing about CoppaFeel's decision is that they should know better than to collude with what Page3 promotes.

I dropped out of school at 15 with no qualifications, in much the same situation as the residents of James Turner Street on Channel 4's Benefits Street. But thanks to a plumbing apprenticeship, hard work and an old box of tools I bought at an auction, I now own London's biggest independent plumbing firm, which I built myself from the ground up.

The 'debate' this week in Parliament regarding smoking in cars with child passengers had me hanging my head in disbelief. We are talking about an activity that puts more than 4,000 chemicals into the air, a number of which are known to cause cancer. Why are we debating it at all... and why are people in our government still opposing it?

For those who worry this festival of negotiations may be too politics-oriented, worry not: there has recently been a sharp increase in less conventional Model UN conferences, which deal with subjects ranging from organised crime in 1920s Chicago to Magellan's first voyage.

On the 24th January, members of the Durham Union Society voted against the motion "This House Believes Feminists Are All Too Often Sexists In Disguise" after speeches from Mike Buchanan, Swayne O'Pie, Cindy Gallop and Julie Bindel.

Poverty has always been with humanity - even Jesus said that the poor would always be with us. Yet while nothing short of a miracle would have made poverty eradication possible 2,000 years ago - neither emperors nor kings had the knowledge or resources to do it - today, we have what it takes to tackle poverty.